New King Co. animal control plan gets preliminary OK

A new model for providing care and shelter for animals was approved by a slightly reluctant King County Council committee on Tuesday.

The old model was losing money and was one of the factors that was busting the County budget. Officials hope the new model eventually pay for itself. The County would have to allocate $3.2 million to launch the program later this year and hopes to bring in $2.5 million. The Budget and Fiscal Management Committee unanimously approved the idea, which will now be considered by the full Council on Monday. King County faces at least a $140 million operating budget deficit through 2012.

Rascal looks up from eating in his kennel at the Kent Animal Care and Control Shelter Kent. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer file photo)

County officials had said the money they take in from pet licenses and other fees have fallen short of the cost of providing animal care and control services by about $3 million annually – a vexing situation for a government that faces operating budgets deficits in the tens of millions of dollars each year. The county provides animal services for unincorporated areas and almost every city, with exception of Seattle, Renton, Milton and Skykomish.

“This proposal doesn’t solve our problem. Doesn’t solve our revenue problem,” said Councilwoman Julia Patterson, who chairs the budget committee. “None of us want to subsidize the cities, all of us would like to get out of the animal sheltering business…but we can’t do that right now, because there’s no place for the animals to go.”

If King County opted out of the animal care and control business, “there’d be a free-for-all in the streets, with dogs and cats.”

Under the plan put forward in April, King County would be divided into four districts, each staffed by at least one animal control officer, stray animals would be kept at a non-profit shelter in Lynnwood or at the county shelter in Kent. The County Council must still approve the idea. Agreements for the 30-month contract must be signed by June 30, to be effective July 1.

The new animal proposal was developed by representatives from the county and the cities of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Redmond, Bellevue, Sammamish, SeaTac, Tukwila and Kent. As for licensing, a single system would still be administered by the county, but fees collected from people in cities would be credited back to the municipality against its share of the program’s costs. The hope is that cities would try to increase the number of pets that are licensed.

The county says a regional system ultimately controlled by the county will give people one place to call to find lost pets or get licenses. And individual cities won’t have to devote police resources to animal issues, the county says.

The 27 cities that have indicated interest in the new system would contribute about $1 million in the first year of the new animal services contract, the Council was told. Cities that have decided not to join the new model are Federal Way, Burien, Algona, Pacific and Hunts Point.

It’s hoped that pet licenses and fines will pay for 60 percent of the regional model. The total cost to cities is thought to be just over $4 million.

The county had been in talks with the Seattle Humane Society to take over animal shelter operations.

“Last year, when we decided we wanted to get out of the animal sheltering business, there was an outside entity that told us they could take our animals,” Patterson said. “When the time came to transfer our animals to that shelter, it turns out they didn’t have room for those animals.”

In April, when the new county plan was announced, Seattle Humane Society officials said they were taken by surprise. Brenda Barnette, head of the local Humane Society, said at the time she believed her group could provide the best care for animals.

On Tuesday, Barnette said the local Humane Society determined that it couldn’t take all of the animals without making physical changes to its facility.

Prior to his election as County Executive, Dow Constantine had advocated having a private takeover of animal care operations.